Automotive websites, iPhones and apparently we’re slacking on writing blogs.

It’s true, we can’t deny it. We’ve been huge slackers in the blog department. Today marks the official start to our venture at 11th Digital Dealer in Las Vegas. We have the Tahoe and trailer completely packed and on the road. We’re fairly certain we didn’t leave anything behind. Well, except for those flying out later.

1. Digital Dealer: How much gas will it take to get the Tahoe and trailer to #DD11? Your guesses are being taken on Twitter right now. Tweet your guess to @dealerfire, then stop by booth 327 to see if you’re the winner. Follow the conversation! We’ll be tweeting, and we’re not kidding. All of us, from Eric Hoopman to Brian Wagner will be behind those tweets. And, we’ve even got our own hashtag to play with, #oshvegas. Keep an eye out. Come get a live demo! If you haven’t seen a demo of a DealerFire custom automotive website, then now is the perfect time. We’ll have a great staff in our booth, from sales engineers, programmers to current clients who can attest to our great sites. While you’re at our booth, grab a demo of Trinity Suite, the killer all-in-one app for dealerships.

2. AWA Awards: We’ll be sitting patiently just like everyone else in the room awaiting the results. Who are we kidding, no we won’t. We’ll be just as excited as everyone else. We can’t wait to spend time with our favorite industry peers and congratulate those who have truly excelled this past year. We have our eye on a few.

3. Driving Sales Executive Summit: We’re not done in Vegas just yet. We’ll be at #DSES and we’re bringing a great group of innovative thinkers from great dealerships. We’re very thrilled to be a part of this summit and looking forward to some great take-aways.

4. J.D. Powers Automotive Internet Roundtable: More great speakers and sessions and more learning for DealerFire. As this event will wrap up our time in Vegas, we’ll be able to pull it all together and really organize all the great things we’ve learned to present to our staff. Once we’re back in our hometown of Oshkosh, WI we’re hitting the ground running. Well, after more than two weeks out of the office and over 4,000 miles on the Tahoe we might need a day or two to fuel back up on good ‘ol Wisconsin..But after that, for sure.

DealerFire is a custom automotive web design and Internet marketing firm that caters specifically to the automotive industry. DealerFire offers a personalized approach to every auto dealer website, landing page, micro site, mobile site and marketing campaign. What prospective DealerFire clients may not know is that the award-winning website design company also creates custom website portals for automotive publications.

DealerFire can custom design a website portal for your publication that will provide your readers with a different platform to acquire content. Your publication’s advertisers will also have the opportunity to draw-in more clients. An example of a DealerFire website portal is GOAutoPlus.com. GOAutoPlus.com is an automotive publication with over 13,000 vehicles in its inventory from several car dealers in Wisconsin. Every vehicle in the publication is available on the GOAutoPlus.com website portal and allows for an easy research and car-buying experience.

A custom DealerFire website portal includes several outstanding features designed to make your publication break through the clutter. Your top-ranking portal will include dealership landing pages and direct links, a content and dealer sign-up management system, customizable search filters, lead conversion forms and tools, among many other customizable features.

Reverse Publishing is the second aspect of a custom website portal that flawlessly aids in gathering, organizing and sharing data from your website portal right back to your publication. With Reverse Publishing your publication’s inventory will be polled and managed daily on your website portal. Your publication’s InDesign extension will also be exported daily. Reverse Publishing will incorporate data aggregation, exports and imports and provide a VIN decoding and vehicle listing system.

Text 2 Mobil is the third component to a custom DealerFire website portal. DealerFire will create a mobile site customized specifically for your publication. Your readers will have access to an unlimited mobile enabled inventory. Your publication will be given a text user gateway and guidelines, scheduled text delivery as well as set-up, training and support.  Text 2 Mobil will allow your readers to access your publication’s inventory on the go, anywhere and anytime.

DealerFire’s Auto Publishing Services are designed to drive more traffic to your publication’s website portal and ultimately attract more buyers for your advertisers. As part of this service, our Reverse Publishing platform can also assist in obtaining, organizing, and transferring data seamlessly from the digital world directly to the pages of your publication. Each platform, like our Text 2 Mobil program is specifically tailored to your needs to generate thousands of leads to your customer base all while helping to generate more dollars to your bottom line. For more information, visit the DealerFire website at www.dealerfire.com or the GOAutoPlus.com website at www.goautoplus.com and click on the “Publishers” tab on the navigation bar. DealerFire looks forward to your publication’s interest and partnership.

Neleven builds website for Oshkosh, Wisconsin warming shelter.

When a non-profit group in Oshkosh, Wisconsin was in need of a website for their warming shelter Neleven, DealerFire’s sister company, volunteered to donate building and maintaining it. Day By Day Warming Shelter, a place for area homeless men and women to stay overnight in cold months, will be Oshkosh’s first warming shelter and is slated to open October 15. The group is relying heavily on donations to keep this goal, as they are still $80,000 short.

The group’s leader, Tina Haffeman knows the financial goal set before them will be a challenge but she is determined. She feels that the area’s homeless deserve to be treated with dignity and have the ability to stay warm when Wisconsin winters can bring such extreme temperatures. Many of the homeless men and women who would be able to use Day By Day Warming Shelter would not be able to use few other shelter choices in the area. Day By Day Warming Shelter will provide constant supervision and will not turn down those who have been drinking or using drugs, as the other shelters do.

Neleven worked with the shelter to build a custom designed website that would function as an information hub for the shelter and beyond.  Neleven's website production team and creative designers worked with the group to ensure it was done right.

There are many people involved with the group, volunteers providing food, supervision of those staying and the church that donated space. The website incorporated a Google calendar so those wishing to volunteer can stay in the know. Volunteer opportunities are listed right on the site, making becoming involved easy.

As most of us feel the need to keep the air conditioning cranked a little bit higher, few of us can forget about cold Wisconsin winters. Donating to Day By Day Warming Shelter is easy to do, just visit their website for more information. There are various ways to donate; be it financial donations, time or meals.

It’s impossible to put a price on assisting people when they’re down. As Haffeman puts it, there isn’t a person around who isn’t deserving of the human dignity of food and shelter. Neleven and DealerFire are proud to have taken what we’re best at doing and give that gift to people who can use it most.